Andre Villas-Boas’ time at Chelsea could’ve been very different, billed as the next Jose Mourinho and appointed by Abramovich, the Portuguese tactician lasted just nine months at the club during a rollercoaster 2011-12 season.
Infamously sacked just two months before Chelsea went on to win the Champions League under Roberto Di Matteo, his old assistant, Villas-Boas has now taken time to reflect on his poor spell in London more than a decade on and revealed four transfer revelations.
According to the 44-year-old, none other than Modric, Radamel Falcao, Carlos Tevez and Moutinho were on his shopping list – and it seems they were more than just wishes.
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“Chelsea was something that happens to a lot of people who have been through there,” Villas-Boas began when speaking to the Telegraph.
“Sometimes you get lucky, you win a trophy and at least you leave a mark. I wasn’t that lucky. We thought that we wouldn’t need as many changes as we predicted when we planned to start, okay? So that was a managerial mistake,” he admitted. “Of course, we missed the Modric deal at the beginning of the season.
“If the Modric deal was not to be done there was the Moutinho deal to be done. That was the promise of Roman at that time. Moutinho joined the Premier League years and years after I tried – proposing to both Chelsea and Tottenham – and everybody has seen the player that he is. So that denial of him was a failure that you can’t (blame on) a coach.
“I thought that we had the Modric deal done and he ended up in Real Madrid the season after. Then the Moutinho deal was to be done with Porto but the problem was the deal (for Chelsea) for the left-back of Porto, Alvaro Pereira, fell through. Roman felt p***ed off.
“So, no Modric, no Moutinho… Falcao is another one that was about to come in but then you had (Didier) Drogba who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to leave or not in January. He was about to go to Shanghai, then he isn’t any more and then Marina (Granovskaia, ex-Chelsea director) she wanted Carlos Tevez and suddenly she doesn’t want Tevez any more.”
Regardless of his frustration, Villas-Boas is reluctant to criticise the club. Mostly disbanded in the decade since, particularly after Abramovich’s controversial exit this spring, Chelsea continued to be serial winners in the years following Villas-Boas’ sacking.
“So, you know, managements and mismanagements that are typical within that organisation,” the former Blues boss, who last managed Marseille until February 2021, continued. “But Marina evolved to one of the greatest CEOs at that time (at Chelsea). I am nothing compared to what she has achieved.
“Listen, this time was sensitive because Roman was in the middle of… a case he had against his partner (Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky) so he wasn’t available most of the time. There are a lot of things about that season that deserve one of those shocking autobiographies in England that reaches number one in WH Smith!”
Villas-Boas went on to manage Tottenham, Zenit St Petersburg and Shanghai SIPG after his Chelsea fiasco, having been a storming success at Porto and Academica in his early days after notably not playing the game professionally.
“I have no problem speaking about my failures,” Villas-Boas affirmed. “People (say) to me: ‘Oh, he was a stupid boy who went into management and it didn’t go well at Chelsea because he was too stubborn, too blah, blah, blah and then the release clause and he got his £10million, his £15m.
“There are so many lies that are present in this game that people want to relate to me… I am curious and I investigate and I dwell in detail and I read and I prepare. But sometimes things go well, sometimes not well. How many coaches have been fired by Chelsea?”
